英语专业英语修辞总结

Figures of speech (修辞)are ways of making our language figurative. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal sense to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively.

1. simile

2. metaphor

3. personification

4. metonymy

5. synecdoche

6. irony

7. epigram (paradox) 8. repetition

9. antithesis 10. parallelism

11. euphemism 12. transferred epithet

13. oxymoron 14. alliteration

15. hyperbole 16. litotes

17. anti-climax 18. assonance

19. periodic sentence 20. rhetorical question

21. onomatopoeia 22. pun

1. simile a comparison between two unlike things having at least one quality or characteristic in common

The water lay grey and wrinkled like an elephant's skin.

Her eyes were jet black, and her hair was like a waterfall.

2. metaphor a comparison between two unlike things, but the comparison is implied rather than stated

Snow clothes the ground.

The ship ploughed the sea.

They will be rounded up in hordes.

He swam bravely against the tide of popular applause.

main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart

3. personification a figure that endows objects, animals, ideas, or abstractions with human form, character, or sensibility

Life dealt him profound personal tragedies...

the river had acquainted him with ...

... to literature's enduring gratitude...

Bitterness fed on the man...

America laughed with him.

The Middle Easter bazaar takes you...

dancing flashes

4. metonymy a figure of speech that consists in using the name of one thing for that of something else with which it is associated

In Japan there is an incessant struggle between the kimono and the miniskirt.

She was a girl who excited the emotions, but I was not one to let my heart rule my head.

heart: feelings and emotions

head, brain: wisdom, intelligence, reason

Metonymy can be derived from various sources:

a. Names of persons

Uncle Sam: the USA?

b. Animals

the bear: the Soviet Union

the dragon : the Chinese (a fight between the bear and the dragon)

c. Parts of the body

heart: feelings and emotions

head, brain: wisdom, intelligence, reason

She was a girl who excited the emotions, but I was not one to let my heart rule my head.

grey hair: old age

d. Profession:

the press: newspapers, reporters etc.

He met the press yesterday evening at the Grand Hotel.

the bar: the legal profession

e. location of government, business etc.

Downing Street: the British Government

the White House: the US president and his government

the Capitol Hill: US Congress

Wall Street: US financial circles

Hollywood: American filmmaking industry

5. Synecdoche (提喻)

with part representing the whole or vise versa

Two heads are better than one.

Many hands make light work.

The football match was a close contest. In the end, China won.

The world knows his worth.

6. Irony (反语)

a figure of speech in which the meaning literally expressed is the opposite of the meaning intended and which aims at ridicule, humour or sarcasm

Hiroshima---the Liveliest City in Japan

Each day of suffering that helps to free me from earthly cares

congratulate myself on the good fortune that my illness has brought me marching backwards to the glorious age of the 16th century

7. Epigram (paradox) (警句)

a brief, pointed saying that has the nature of a proverb